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Monday, April 23, 2012

You know what I learned yesterday? Two things: First, that I'm a lousy running-route planner. Lousy. Second, and much better, that I have a fairly good sense of my marathon goal pace.

About the route. I was looking to run between 14 and 16 miles by myself and I wanted to be able to run from my house, so I wouldn't have to drive anywhere. I spent a long time pondering my route, fiddling around with the gmaps hack and plotting and scrapping routes.

The one I settled on kinda rotted. It was hillier than I expected. There was way more traffic on one two-mile stretch than I was comfortable with. The worst part?I had to run past several growling, barking, mean-seeming dogs and each time I was frightened. I mean, really. When huge mean-looking dogs run up to the side of the street, barking and growling, it makes a runner scared.

Anyway, the route wasn't ideal but you know what? All of these hills are making me stronger. I know it. And the near heart-attacks from those dogs? Well, let's just hope there is some sort of benefit from that.

When I wasn't running from the dogs, I was trying to hold a steady 9:30 pace for the early miles and then I had hoped to drop down to my marathon goal pace for the middle miles. I planned to end the run at a 9:30 pace.

I wanted to run as much by feel as I could so I didn't look at my watch much. Checking my splits after the run, though, I was pleased. I started out the first mile at 9:43 and then settled in to a 9:15 pace for the next few miles. Then I picked it up. I wanted to run my marathon goal pace (8:35) for 5 miles. I came close.

Middle miles: 8:37 average pace for 5 miles.

Sure, I was off by a little but I was running by feel and the route was, if you remember, hilly. And windy. (Wah, wah, wah.) So, I'm pleased that I was as close as I was. Those 5 miles felt good and I felt that it was a pace I could run comfortably and for a long time (26.2 miles? We'll see!).

After running at pace, I finished up with some miles ranging between 8:40 and 9:30. Overall, I ran 14.5 miles at 9:05 pace.

Am I ready for the marathon? Gosh, I hope so.

I want 8:30 to feel easy. I want my legs to gravitate to that pace and stick to it on race day. I want to cross the finish line ahead of 3:45. I've been working to make those wants come true. I hope they do.

Two weeks until the marathon!

What is your favorite thing to do while tapering? Clean? Sleep more? Worry about the weather? Let me know!

~ Felice

10 comments:

Sounds like you had an awesome run... besides those stupid dogs! I hate dogs! I'm so scared of them and I live out in the country so a lot of times there aren't any invisible fences to keep them in the yard and they come shooting across the road at me... I've started carrying doggy mace lol...2 weeks! It's almost here! You're so ready for it!! :)

For me, it's not really the big dogs that come out and bother me, it's always the little yappy ones that owners let walk around and bother people. I will be doing that too soon using gmaps and stuff to route out some courses. Any Advise? Looks like your later half bettered the first of sucky routing. Nice and awesome run. You will smash 3:45. I am excited for you!

This might be an encouraging tid-bit: I ran all of my long runs at the same pace as you (between 8:45-9:10 pace) and ran my first (and only) marathon in 3:35. That said, 3:45 is totally doable with your training!

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This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

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